place. >> good evening. when this debate starts here tonight at the university of denver,moderatorjimlehrerwill ban clapping. so, he says, we as america can concentrate on what the candidates are saying. >> i have made up my mind, but i would still like to see both of the candidates sweat a little bit. >> president obama was relaxed this week. mitt romney, too, but he knows he has to change perceptions tonight. more voters see romney negatively than positively, and that loses elections. >> only two presidential candidates in the last 20 years have had a net negative image at this point and one of them lost, george h. w. bush, ann romney needs to improve that dynamic. >> romney got good news from three battlegrounds. in florida, he is down only by one. . still way behind in ohio peeling -- in florida, he is down only by one. he is still way behind in ohio. in virginia, he is behind by two. >> the idea that i am anti- immigrant is repulse of. do not use a term like that. >> even barack obama can sound like a professorial know what all. >> i understand the broader point senator cohen h

the candidate to call on that? >> steve: i think it depends on the moderator. let's seehowjimlehrerdoes.a poll out this morning, you can see among, i believe registered vote, the president within the margin of error. so it's absolutely pretty much tied. >> brian: that's just one poll. >> steve: national journal has them tied at 47%. what's interesting about the "wall street journal" thing is that apparently, according to the polling and the morning paper, a majority of americans now would like to see one party rule in washington, d.c., where one party controls the white house and both houses of congress as well. >> brian: isn't that why we broke from the king of england, so we could have some type of discussion? >> martha: it tells something about how people feel about the divisionsiveness in washington. let's give it a shot. maybe if we have the same party control in both branches and in the president, maybe we'll get somewhere. it's a sad commentary on people's ability to work together. >> brian: in florida, the polls are tightening up and in virginia, thereabout within two points of

in their first presidential debate. the newshour'sjimlehrermoderatesfrom the university of denver. watch and engage with c-span, including our live debate preview at 7:00 p.m. eastern, the debate at 9:00, and post-debate, your reactions, calls, and emails and tweets. follow our live coverage on c-span, c-span radio, and online at c-span.org. >> september 11, 2001, was a day that changed my life forever. it changed america's life. i'm going to go through a power point presentation, which is going to outline the account, the historical account of the attack as things happened, as things transpired that day. it gets pretty intense. a lot of things happened very quickly. i'm going to do my best not to ramble on and go too fast, but i would ask to you sit back, clear your mind, put yourself in that room, and you'll get a real sense of what it was like to be at the top of the food chain, the national command authority, as a nation of 300 million americans was attacked by 19 al qaeda terrorists. >> more from retired lieutenant colonel robert darling, inside the president's bunker, this weekend

in october, moderatedbyjimlehrer. onceour live debate preview at 7:00 eastern and then the debate at 9:00. afterwards, your reaction in phone calls, e-mails, and tweets. fall was online at c-span.org. -- follow us. "washington journal" continues. host: john glastris is joining us to talk about your recent article in the magazine entitled "too important to fail." we are talking about the fairly recent consumer financial protection bureau. guest: that's right. cfpb is a regulatory agency set up to monitor and protect financial instruments. that's everything from mortgages to certain kinds of credit cards, payday loans, all sorts of things that average people use for savings and investment and so forth. they have not been regulated as products until now. it is the failure to regulate them as products that really precipitated the collapse of the financial system and our recession. host: you say that saving the cfpb is essential to restoring the economy and the american dream. guest: let's think about what has happened in the last few years. the average american family in 1990 the average a